Stop Feeding Apple Your Data

Naomi Brockwell
Tue, 02 Sep 2025 11:31:39 +0000

Homebrew is the app store that doesn’t spy on you.

If you’re on a Mac, chances are you download apps from Apple’s App Store. Add your Apple ID, and everything is neatly in one place, updated with the click of a button.

But convenience comes at a price. Linking an Apple ID to your computer ties all your activity together and makes profiling you effortless.

In past articles, we’ve shown how much data Apple collects, and explained that Linux is the gold standard for privacy. But if you’re not ready to switch, there are still steps you can take right now to make your Mac more private.

This article focuses on Apple IDs, the App Store, and a powerful alternative called Homebrew. It’s a package manager that gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the surveillance.

Apple ID and the App Store

It may seem impossible to avoid Apple IDs and the App Store. On an iPhone, you’re locked in: You need to add an Apple ID and use the App Store to download any apps. (The EU recently forced Apple to allow sideloading, but that doesn’t apply everywhere.)

On a Mac, things are different. You don’t need the App Store at all. You can download software directly from each developer’s website, which means you never need to attach an Apple ID to your computer. And that’s one of the best privacy moves you can make.

Unfortunately, Apple makes it a little tricky to opt out.

When you buy a new Mac, the store will push you to hand over an Apple ID at checkout. You should tell them you don’t have one.

Then when you first set up your computer, it will prompt you to add an Apple ID, and it’s not immediately clear how to skip past this step. The “Continue” button is grayed out unless you fill in your ID. What you might have missed is in the bottom left corner it says “Set Up Later.” Click that.

But Apple still puts up roadblocks. Gatekeeper, which is a macOS security feature that controls which apps are allowed to run on your Mac, by default only allows apps from the App Store or from developers that Apple has verified. If you want to allow downloads from elsewhere, you first have to turn off Gatekeeper’s strict enforcement using command line, and then go back into your settings and select the option to allow apps from “Anywhere.”

Apple really wants every download to run through them. That way, they can log every install, every update, and build a permanent profile of your habits and interests.

App Store: Convenient, But Costly

Of course, there are perks. The App Store makes managing your apps painless. You can update everything with a single click. If you’ve downloaded apps from a dozen different sites, updating becomes a chore. Each app has to be opened and checked manually.

You can always enable auto-updates, but that means your apps constantly ping servers in the background. For many people, that’s a privacy trade-off not worth making.

In fact, I use the firewall software Little Snitch to block my apps from unnecessarily talking to the internet, which makes auto updates even harder. I have to disable the firewall, check every app one by one, and then remember to re-enable the firewall afterwards. It’s easy to slip up, and Apple knows most people won’t bother with this manual process.

Enter Homebrew

This is where Homebrew comes in handy, by providing the convenience of the App Store without all the tracking.

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS and Linux. A package manager is similar to an app store in many ways. Think of it like a hub: a single place to find, install, and update apps quickly and reliably.

Homebrew is well known and open source, but it looks different from the stores you’re used to. There’s no visual store or GUI: Instead you use the command line in Terminal. You can’t buy anything in the store, the software is free. Some apps have paid upgrade features, but Homebrew itself has no ability to collect payments. You don’t need any account to access it, there’s no hidden tracking, and no ads.

Benefits

There are three main benefits, in my opinion, to using Homebrew over downloading apps directly from random websites.

Convenience

Instead of bouncing between dozens of sites to find, install, and update apps, Homebrew gives you simple commands that do it all in one place. One system, and you can use it without handing over telemetry about everything you’re doing.

Safety

Homebrew can help decrease the risk of installing fake or malicious software. When you download apps manually, there’s always the chance that you spelled the URL wrong or landed on a fake site through a phishing link. Homebrew pulls apps from official, verified sources, and it automatically checks the integrity of every file. Generally open source repos include a checksum of the file on their website, which is a hash of the exact file. The checksum of what you downloaded should be identical to the checksum the app has provided. Homebrew verifies that they match, so you’re not getting a tampered or unsafe version. Their code is watched over by a large community, and they log every change publicly. No system is 100% safe, but Homebrew is highly reputable and widely regarded in the open source community.

Gateway to Linux

Homebrew is also compatible with Linux. If you ever decide to switch operating systems, Homebrew is a great way to make the transition easier, and get comfortable with tools you’ll probably use on Linux too.

Tutorial coming soon

Friday week we’ll release a full video tutorial on how to install and use Homebrew, so keep an eye out.

For now, the takeaway is simple: Homebrew gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the privacy trade-offs. You get easy installs, built-in safety checks, and you never have to tie your Mac to an Apple ID.

If you want the benefits of an app store without the profiling that comes with it, Homebrew is the smarter choice.